M I C H A E L
L U C K E R
HOW TO WRITE ACTION MOVIES
CRASH! CR ASH! BOOM! BOOM! BAN BA NG! HOW TO WR ITE ACTION MOVIES
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Published by Michael Wiese Productions 12400 Ventura Ventura Blvd. #1111 Studio City, CA 91604 (818) 379-8799, (818) 986-3408 (FAX)
[email protected] www.mwp.com Cover design by Johnny Ink. www www.johnnyink.com .johnnyink.com Interior design by William Morosi Copyediting by Gary Sunshine Printed by McNaughton & Gunn Manufactured in the United States of America Copyright 2017 by Michael Lucker All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author, except for the inclusion of brief
quotations in a review.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Coplan, Adam, 1972Title: Being professional : a master guide to the do’s and don’ts of screenwriting / Adam Coplan. Description: Studio City, CA : Published by Michael Wiese Productions, [2016] Identifiers: LCCN 2016008723 | ISBN 9781615932498 Subjects: LCSH: Motion picture authorship--Handbooks, manuals, etc. Classification: LCC PN1996 .C81425 2016 | DDC 808.2/3--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016008723
Printed on Recycled Stock
Contents FOREWORD vii
INTRODUCTION ix
CHAPTER 1
Killer Concepts 1
CHAPTER 2
Badass Heroes 15
CHAPTER 3
Twist wistyy Tur Turny ny Plot Plotss 31
CHAPTER 4
Lean Mean Scenes 47
CHAPTER 5
Format Fun-kadelic 55
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CHAPTER 6
Action! 63
CHAPTER 7
Snappy Dialogue 73
CHAPTER 8
Sneaky Transitions 81
CHAPTER 9
Process Protocol 89
CHAP TER 10 10
Plight of the Rewrite 97
CHAP TER 11 11
Deafening Feedback 105
CHAP TER 12 12
Down to Business 113
GRATITUDE 131 13 1
APPENDIX 133
ABOUT TH E AUT AUT HO HOR R 138
VI
Introduction I was an idiot. It was sixth grade at Montgomery Elementary
and I had the smallest of parts in the school play South Pacific. I had the monumental task of stepping onto stage with a hairbrush and delivering two lines. That was it. But I forgot the brush and I forgot my lines. In front of about 150 drop-
jawed parents. So I made something up. They laughed. So I made something else up. They laughed again. Afterward I was heralded a genius and carted off on shoulders for pizza and seltzer. That was the day I realized a) I couldn’t act, b) I could write. This was born out of necessity. I wasn’t as cute
as the cute boys in school, but I liked girls just as much. It was obvious that making them laugh made them swoon, so I decided to be funny. Right then. Right there. Before math
class. Of course, I wasn’t funny for quite some time, but slowly, shakily, I figured out how to move an audience. Of sixth-
grade girls. In high school, it was much the same. I wasn’t as cool as the cool kids, but I could make them laugh too. Someone
suggested I write funny articles about them in the school paper. So I did. Suddenly, people who never knew I existed
were passing me in the hall saying how great the articles were. Mostly the drama teacher, Mr. Murray. He asked if I wanted to
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write a play for the drama club to perform. A play play.. I knew no better, so I said “Sure.” “Sure.” It was a dark comedy about a group of patients at an insane asylum who drove the staff crazy. Three hundred people came. And they laughed too. So I decided to go off to college to study writing somewhere they could train
me to earn the favor of the cute girls and the cool kids. Boston University’s esteemed College of Communication
had an essay component to their application. I figured whoever was reading those pages all day had to be bored out of their
mind. So I wrote jokes… making fun of the application process. I got in. Hooah. They had a film and broadcasting major, and I had a dream. Boston was a different planet. It seemed like I was the only kid in the city from south of the Mason-Dixon line. I talked
different, dressed different. Think I even walked different from everyone else. Desperate to fit in, I did what I always did and started writing. Skits and songs and films and commercials. Anything to win hearts and minds in a brave new world and
avoid getting my ass kicked by the Long Island student mafia. To the college’s credit, they believed their writing graduates
should actually have something to write about. So I had to take a wide variety of classes. I fought my way through marketing,
clawed my way through astronomy, bullshitted my way through psychology. And then it happened. I took Dr. John Kelly’s screenwriting class. It was like a light went on over my head.
The light flashed “Do this.” I thought, Really? I can make a living doing this? It was the most fun I ever had. And Dr. Kelly
made it so. His quick wit and disarming intellect made the writing process easily digestible and inspired us all to tell our
stories to the world. After college I landed green and penniless on a couch in
Pasadena ready to break into Hollywood. I got my car towed,
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my car stolen, my car jacked. Finally, I got my foot in the door. It got stepped on a few times, but eventually I found myself
working with some of the greatest minds in the film industry — as production assistant to Steven Spielberg, creative assistant at Hollywood Pictures, Pictur es, and screenwriter screenwr iter for Disney Dis ney,, DreamWorks, DreamWorks, Paramount, Fox, and Universal. I also read the books and took the seminars of some of the best screenwriting instructors in
the land upon whose shoulders I now stand. After years of triumphs and travails writing, I returned to the hills and trees of my hometown, Atlanta, which has since
become a thriving hub of film production. Here I write and
consult on feature films and teach screenwriting at University of North Georgia, Emory University, and in my own workshops at Screenwriter School. Thanks to the encouragement
and cajoling from family, friends, and students, I now pass
along the lessons I’ve learned in hopes they will inspire others. What follows are my two cents on writing action movies:
concept, character, plot, scene, format, action, dialogue, transition, process, rewriting, feedback, and business. Each chapter
begins with an anecdote from my path as a writer and ends with a movie I recommend that exemplifies the topic within.
Along the way, I hope you find something that moves you,
entertains you, and, most of all, educates you. If not, I hope it at least helps you get the girl. Or the boy. Or from getting your ass kicked.
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How to Use Use This Th is Book This book was written for aspiring screenwriters, professional
screenwriters, students of screenwriting, and screenwriting
instructors. Of course, fans of action movies may enjoy it too. The content is the material I find best to teach and in the
order I teach it. Below are a few tips specific to wherever you are in your writing journey. Enjoy! a) If you’re a film student read one chapter each …
week. Read the script recommended and then watch
the movie. Then do the writing assignment in line with the topic. Be prepared to discuss the film in class and turn in your weekly assignment for your instructor or
classmates to review. Be sure to follow your instructor’s recommendations for any variations. b) If you’re a writing instructor … assign your students one chapter to read each week. If time permits, ask them to watch the movie recommended. They will
benefit from reading the screenplay (or selections from the screenplay) as well. Lectures, twelve in total, should fall in line with the weekly chapters and the semester
structure. You may wish to use the chapter subheadings as topics for class discussion and show film clips to illustrate points. I also like to review the homework
of one or two students each week in class, so everyone can benefit from instructor feedback. I then partner students in twos so they can all receive feedback and
practice the art of collaboration. Please know that
nothing here is set in stone. Do what works best for you and your class. While the assignments are structured for students to write pages one to fifty-five of their feature scripts, I often opt to have them write an entire short
screenplay (of thirty thir ty to forty pages) instead. This allows
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them the benefit of working on a whole script while supervised and enjoying the satisfaction of finishing a
draft they can share with others and submit to competitions. Lastly, while the nature of the material is geared toward writers of the action genre, my hope is that the lessons herein will help writers of all movies. c) If you’re a screenwriter … new to the craft or genre, or experienced in the field, know that you’ve come to the right place. I wrote this book so that it would be approachable, understandable, and beneficial for all. The wonderful thing about writing movies is that
anyone can do it. You don’t need a crew, a cast, or a camera. You just need this book and something to write on. Read it straight through if you wish. But know it may be beneficial to read a chapter at a time. In between, watch the films I recommend at the end
of the chapter. If you have the time, read the scripts
first. This will help you see how movies are brought to life from just ink on a page. If you feel you’re ready to begin writing, you can get started. The assignments at
the end of each chapter will serve as your guide. Get feedback from a friend or family member if you dare.
If they write themselves, great. If not, no matter, it will still be helpful. Armed with their feedback, make any
changes you feel appropriate and then read another chapter. It will give you the next step toward success.
By the end of the book, you will have finished fifty-five pages of your own screenplay and be equipped with the knowledge and drive to finish it.
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Killer Con Concepts cepts “A monkey monke y can sell a screenplay, scre enplay,” literar y agent Bob Hohman Ho hman once onc e confided. confi ded. Well, hell. Go sell ours ours!! My wr writing iting par partner tner at the time, the talented Chris Parker, and I were broke, shacking up with roommates, typing day and night to make enough money for ramen soup. If it i t was so easy, e asy, why weren’t we living li ving high on the th e hog? We came ca me up with a g reat idea, or so we thought.While ever yone else was looking to the stars to stage an alien invasion, we looked to the ground. What if there were creatures in the core of the earth? Granted, it was a concept that had lingered since the dawn of time, but no one was doing it now. Besides, ours would be different. We burned the midnight oil, cranking out pages over weeks and months until finally it was ready to send out. That same day the trades announced that Paramount had bought The Core (Cooper
Layne and John Rogers), a screenplay about danger in the center of the planet. p lanet. Nooooo! All that work for naught. What were we to do? Well, we went to Hennessy’s Pub and drank is what we did. And then we thought th ought of a way to tur n our idea on its ear ear.. What if our journey jour ney to the center of the earth, through the floor of the Aegean Sea, led to the lost city of Atlantis? And there were creatures down
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there! No one was doing that. So we burned more oil and refurbished the draft into Atlantis. Lo and behold, Bob Hohman sold that to Fox. We didn’t make enough money off it to move to Beverly Hills, or even Agoura Hills, but we did make enough to pay our rent in Hermosa Beach for a
while. Ecstatic to have sold an idea of our own to a major studio, we went in for meetings raring to rewrite. rewr ite. Whatever they needed, ne eded, we were game. More action? Done! More suspense? Done! Instead we
got… “Can you guys make the characte characters rs younger?” Um, what? “Can you make it less scary?” Huh? “Can you make the world more colorful?” Why? “Well, we want this to be an animated chil-
dren’s dre n’s movie mo vie..”We retu r eturr ned to the pub.
What’ Wh at’ss the Big Idea? Everyone has an idea for a movie. Every waiter in Los Angeles County has a screenplay they’re working on. Just tell
someone you’re reading this thi s book — in Atlanta, in Anchorage, in Instanbul — and they’ll tell you they have an idea for a blockbuster. All you have to do is write it, and they’ll split
the money with you 50/50. Deal, huh? Hardly. As every writer knows, doing the writing is the work. Still, the idea is where is the it all starts. You can be the greatest writer in all the land, but if you’re writing a heartwarming character piece about lawn
maintenance, it may be a tough sell. Action movies are no
different. You can have the biggest explosions, the coolest characters, and the wittiest lines, but if the concept isn’t there, an
audience won’t be either. Like any relationship, best to start things off on the right foot. What story do you want to tell? What are you going to pour every ounce of your blood, sweat, and tears into for the
next six weeks, six months, or six years? Chances are you picked 2
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up this book because you have an idea for an action movie. Good. Action movies are hot property. A quick gander at your
Fandango or Netflix queue will tell you so. In fact, it is the most revenue-generating genre in the cinema sphere. Your task is coming up with the right one to write. What follows are tips to find it. Be warned, however, that after reading this chapter,
you might want to rethink your approach to your idea. Or come up with a new one altogether. That’s okay. That’s part of the process. And it is far better to start down the right path now
than to have to find your way back from the wrong one later.
Where Wher e Do Ideas Come Come From? Believe it or not, I got my love for action movies from my mom. While most Southern mothers were touting the likes of Driving Miss Daisy (Alfred Uhry), my mom was calling me
with… “Michael! Did you see that RoboCop (Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner)?! My
word! When the ED-209 blew that kid away in the meeting?! That was awesommmme!!” Never was there a shortage of ideas that got her excited.
And, in turn, me. But where do all those ideas come from? Ideas for action movies can come from everywhere. Just look around you. Your job, your dreams, your kids. Within all
of them lie nuggets of stories. They just have to be mined. Have you had to fight for custody of your child? Do you toss
with nightmares of someone chasing you for a crime you didn’t commit? Does your boss make you want to burn down his house? Often the best stories come out of the worst of times.
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Consider what you have been through and survived. With
health, with work, with relationships. How about those around you? Your friends, your neighbors, your acquaintances. Look at what they are going through. The stories are there if you look. If you listen. If you ask. History serves as fine fodder for coming up with new stories as well. Are there periods in our nation’s evolution that pique your interest? Are there sides to confrontations in
faraway lands not yet told? Perhaps some brave characters have gone unacknowledged in the zeitgeist. Legends old and unsung can make fantastic characters as today’s heroes. Literally or metaphorically. Sometimes all you have to do is turn them on their ear. Make those knights or queens or wise men and
women today’s soldiers, presidents, and business titans. Media is also rife with exciting tales for you to make your own. News, music, magazines, art, books, television, Internet. Surf the whole spectrum for seeds of action inspiration. Just
be sure to make them original. Any ideas born of another’s creation require you to purchase the rights and give credit where due. Did a horde of chimps break free from the local
research lab? Did a band of football players fend off an attacker at their high school? Was a new planet discovered with conditions similar to our own? Just open the newspaper. Your next
idea could be there staring back at you. Imagination is the final frontier. From within can come all. The trick is getting within. Find ways to quiet your mind long enough for ideas to germinate. Meditate. Turn off the radio in the car or the TV in the house. Go for walks alone in the
woods. And dare I say it, but you might want to steer clear of caffeine and sugar and Scotch, so there’s a clear landing pad for the ideas emerging. Then, as Jungian psychology teaches,
ask. And pay attention to what you hear. 4
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Where Will the t he Ideas Ideas Go? Be sure your idea has the legs to sustain an action film. Many ideas sound great at first blush, but then fizzle out as one-note wonders. Once upon a time, Saturday Night Live was actually funny. Even then, those sketches had limitations. They could kill in three minutes. But lasting thirty would be a stretch, let
alone 120. Make sure your idea has the potential for enough
twists to propel your hero in new directions unforeseen.
Examine if it has legitimate grounds for your hero to transform in a realistic way. Look for ways the story will not only engage your audience, but keep them on the edge of their seats until
the very end.
Get Fresh Ideas are a dime a dozen. In the early 1900s, prolific novelist
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch professed there are only seven basic story plots: Human vs. Human Human vs. Nature
Human vs. God Human vs. Society Human in the Middle Woman and Man
Human vs. Himself
According to him and others, all stories fall into one of those
seven buckets. This is why it is important for you to make sure that what’s in your bucket is different. If I asked a roomful of people to write an action tale about a ten-year-old boy whose father left when he was a baby and
who sets out to find his father when his mother dies, those ten 5
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people would tell that story ten different ways, based on each one’s own experience, perspective, and imagination. The hero, also known as protagonist , could be black or white, the setting
city or country, the opponent, also known as antagonist , could be mortal or immortal. It’s all in the eyes of the scribes. Lastly, pay attention to the box office. You don’t want to
go out with a spec script (a (a script written on speculation of sale) that bears a striking resemblance to the Transformers sequel (Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and John
Rogers) that landed in theaters last week. Agents
look for fresh voices that can tell new stories… regardless of what it may
seem like at the theater.
Write What You Know It’s an age-old adage to write what you know. After all, no one is going to know better than you what it feels like to be bitten by a dog, tormented by coworkers, or held up at gunpoint if you’ve been through it. What if you were a hockey player, an
army ranger, or an illegal alien? No matter where you’ve been or what you’ve been through, you’re going to have a window
into experiences few others will. When it comes to tech talk, cop talk, doc talk, nothing
stands out more than writing wrong. Authenticity is paramount no matter your character’s culture. Your command of their world will come out in what they say and do. Know how to
load an AK-47? Fly an airplane? Sew up a suture? If you have experience and knowledge in a particular space, lean into it.
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Expertise will lend credence to your story and get you hired by studio executives as a subject matter expert.
Write What W hat You You Want Want to t o Know K now If this script is going to be your new best friend for a while,
why not dive into material you long to learn? Fascinated by the KGB? Passionate about gun rights? Curious about past lives? If so, doing research on your story and characters will
be fun. It will also fan the flames
of your imagination, bringing forth
If this script is going
new ideas in rapid succession.
to be your new best
Scenery will appear, conspiracies
friend frie nd for a while, why why
will emerge, dialogue will speak to
not dive into material
you long to lear n? you. All because you took the time to look outside of yourself, outside your comfort zone and into the unknown. In the end, you will
walk away from the process having learned a few things and
grown yourself.
Who Cares? Will anyone actually want to see your movie? Movies are a business. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Whether it’s an epic for Warner Bros. or an indie for the Poughkeepsie Film Festival, you want people to see it. Movies are expensive. Investors want their
You can’t please all the
money back… and a little extra for
people all the time, so
their trouble. Besides, what’s the
don’t try. Just make
point of telling a story if no one
sure you are entertaining
wants to watch it? Be aware of who
and enlightening the
the action moviegoing audience
ones you want.
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is, what they’re seeing, and what they want to see. However,
remember: You can’t please all the people all the time, so don’t try. Just make sure you are entertaining and enlightening the
ones you want.
Got Action? There are many kinds of movies at the Cineplex: The thriller, comedy, romance, horror, western, sci-fi, and action picture
are all popular fare. You have chosen action. Make sure you are clear about your approach to the genre before you begin. Is it action-adventure, action-comedy, action-thriller, action-horror? Whatever you choose, be consistent. Too often movies go off the rails because what began as a lighthearted action-comedy
turns into a brooding action-thriller. Be careful experimenting with unproven combos just to be different. A lighthearted, romantic action-tragedy might be a hard sell. Establish the tone of your genre early and maintain it. Is it dry or broad,
assertive or aggressive, agg ressive, dark or diabolical? Wavering genres and tones undermine the audience’s confidence in the storytelling. Choose genres and tones you know and love. Action writers will go crazy stuck in soapy melodramas. Heartfelt romance writers will do laps around their kitchen before sitting down to craft a fight scene. Rest assured, it’s good to be known in
Hollywood for writing a specific genre. If studio executives have an open writing assignment for a buddy-western, they
look to their list of ten thousand writers in the WGA (Writers Guild of America) and quickly narrow it down to those who
demonstrate an aptitude in the space. They’re not much for
considering writers outside their box. Their jobs are on the line. Your job is to get in the box. And excel there. After you have a few movies produced, then you can try spreading your wings. 8
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Danger Zones Choosing your setting (the (the time and location of your story) is often as important as choosing the characters within it.
First and foremost, you want to make sure it is organic to the story. Is this setting where this story would actually take place? When possible, try to take the audience somewhere they’ve
never been. When Top Gun (Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.) came out, everyone was excited to be on an aircraft carrier and in the cockpit of F-14s. In The Bourne Ultimatum (Tony Gilroy,
Scott Z. Burns, George Nolfi, and Robert Ludlum), inside the life of a CIA operative. In The Fast and The Furious
(Gary Scott Thompson,
Erik Bergquist, and David Ayer), in the world of street racing. Ask yourself
where you can take your readers that is interesting.
Exciting. Dangerous. Settings can often be characters unto themselves. The
more detail there is to work with, the more fun you can have painting the canvas with the sights and sounds and smells of that locale. For your action sequences, are there practical set pieces to use as obstacles and
props to use as weapons? Lastly,
Be sure that the setting
be sure that the setting is not
is not only cinematic,
only cinematic, but emblematic
but emblematic of your
of your hero’s journey, providing
hero’s journey, providing
ripe scenarios for them to learn
ripe scenarios for them
their lessons.
to learn their lessons.
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Message in a Bott Bottle le Everyone has something they want to get off their chest. Now’s your chance. Our lives are full of moments we can’t express ourselves. Let your story be your pulpit. In academic circles,
we call this theme: the underlying lesson or principle you want to resonate with your audience after they have left the theater. For example:
Crime doesn’t pay.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
These ideas may be trite, but are effective. Themes don’t have to be cliché to be good. You can make up your own:
Piracy is the only true form of capitalism.
Loving what you do will lead to the one you will love.
Losing horribly prepares you to win gracefully.
Whatever your theme, choose only one. Movies that try to cram too many messages down the throats of their viewers feel congested and confused. In great stories, one strong theme will be reflected in multiple ways by multiple characters. But don’t go beating a gong about it. Allow the viewer to pick it up on their
Putting your hero between
own. No one likes to be told how
a rock and a hard place
to think. Let alone what to believe.
and forcing them to
The best themes require your
make a difficult choice
hero to make a moral choice that
is one of the things that
bears consequences. Will your
connects the character
hero sacrifice the one he loves to
to your audie audience nce..We
save a hundred strangers? Will an
know that place. We
honest cop break the law to keep
face those challenges.
his partner out of prison? Putting
And our o ur choices choice s make
your hero between a rock and a
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hard place and forcing them to make a difficult choice is one
of the things that connects the character to your audience. We know that place. We face those challenges. And our choices
make us who we are.
Roller Coaster Rides Good action movies are like roller coasters. With ups and downs, twists and turns, fascination and fear. If your story is not raising the pulse, lifting the spirits, and dropping the audience off emotional cliffs, it’s not doing its job. Make sure
that your initial concept has roots of highs and lows planted firmly in its ground. In memorable films, the audience hides
beneath their popcorn with worry, jumps to their feet with victory, and cries on shoulders in defeat. You want viewers to
leave the theater exhilarated, drained, and looking at the world differently than when they walked in. In a meeting at DreamWorks, I once pitched what I
believed was the greatest action movie of all time. I touted its strength as having wall-to-wall action. The head of the studio
at the time, Jeffrey Katzenberg, politely said, “Well, it can’t
be.” be. ” “But it’s an action movie!” m ovie!” I exclaimed. He explained you need moments for your characters (and audience) to rest. To reflect on what has transpired and rebuild. If recovery time is
minimal, it lessens the significance of the hardship endured. It need not take a lot of screen time, but it should be enough in the character’s reality to justify his reentry into battle. If not, he will seem shallow or unaffected for moving forward so quickly after a best friend’s death or the sack of a city.
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Keep It Simple Stories have a way of complicating themselves. Once you start unveiling secrets, revealing character, and providing plot twists, the story can take on a life of its own, so start from a simple
place. The best stories do. How? Center them on a singular
mission of the hero:
Get the gold.
Get the girl.
Once you start unveiling
Get the job.
secrets, revealing character,
Get the killer.
and providing plot twists,
Get the trophy.
the story can take on a
Get out of jail.
life of its own, so start
Get off the island.
Get back home.
from a simple place.
Get my drift? Any one of these will serve you well and allow even the dimmest of bulbs to follow your story. And
that’s what you want: a central idea that works for the masses. There can be incredibly clever characters and dialogue and scenes and action all through your story; just keep the core
concept something easy to follow.
What Wh at Is Your Your Title? Title ? Pick a title. Yes, now. Yes, it can change. But coming up with
a title at the beginning gives you focus. And focus is what you need early. It should reflect the concept and evoke action.
Don’t try to be too avant-garde. Your title and tagline have to sell the script on a poster or in a guide. The good ones also reflect theme. If you have dual purpose to your title, it will have dual effect. And that’s a good thing. Like great stories,
great titles are also simple. 12
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DIE HARD
Die Hard (Jeb (Jeb Stuart and
Steven de Souza) is a brilliant action movie that exemplifies many of the elements discussed in this
chapter. Sure, it’s been ripped off a hundred times by its own franchise and every
other studio in Hollywood, but that’s because it works.
in the Die Hard in
White House (White House Down — James Vanderbilt) on Air Force Die Hard on One ( Air Force One — Andrew Andre w W. W. Marl Marlowe) owe) on a Die Hard on battleship (Under Siege — J. F. F. Lawton) in a bus Die Hard in (Speed — Graham Yost) in a phone Die Hard in booth (Phone Booth — Larry Cohen) When Die Hard came came out, there was nothing quite like it. A hero who had unresolved issues with his wife had to get her out of a building taken over by thieves. That was it. Once he got her
out, guess what happened. Nothing. The movie was over.
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Die Hard blew blew up the box office and was heralded by critics.
It’s a high-concept idea that can be pitched (and sold) in a line, with a clear desire for your hero (and your audience) to
ride from Fade In to Fade Out. To see this great premise in practice, I recommend you read the script to Die Hard . Examine how the writers’ telling
of the tale is laid out on paper. How the weaving of their words brings the story to life in your mind’s eye. Then watch the movie and see how those words were interpreted by an army
of cinematic collaborators. Once you have, it will then be time for you to come up with your own concept. HOMEWORK READ:
Die Hard
WATCH:
Die Hard
WRITE:
A one-page concept for your movie
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Badass Ba dass Heroes Heroes “Hi. I’m Steven. Steven .” I knew. kn ew. He was Steven Spiel Spielberg. berg. He owned ow ned the company that hired me to serve him all hours of the day and night. “Hi. I’m Mike, Mi ke,” I said. sai d. I was nobody. n obody. Just a kid from f rom Georg Ge orgia ia with wi th a dream of becoming Steven Spielberg. This was my first big meeting in Hollywood that led to my first big job as his assistant. “How the hell did you get to work for Steven Spielberg?” I’m often asked. I wasn’t related to anyone in the movie business. I didn’t sleep with anyone. I didn’t have the money to bribe anybody. The answer? I wrote him a letter telling him he was my favorite filmmaker of all time and I would work for him regardless of pay pay..
Of course, I wrote that to ninety-nine other filmmakers too. New to Los Angeles, I stumbled into the Samuel French Film and Theatre Bookshop on Ventura Boulevard searching for direction. What I found was the Hollywood Creative Directory. In it someone put the addresses of every top film producer in the city. A
firm fir m believer that we make ma ke our own fate, I promised myself I would write a hundred letters to everyone I wanted to work for. From Avildsen A vildsen to Zemecki Zemeckis. s. I mailed the letters on a Friday and waited.
Weeks went by. Slowly, letters dribbled in. “Thanks, kid. Nothing
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available availab le.. Good luck. l uck. Gods Godspeed peed..” I received rece ived only on ly one on e phone phon e call. call . It
was from Amblin Entertainment, Steven Spielberg’s company. I met with them. I showered first. I shaved. They hired me. After just two weeks at Amblin, Ambl in, I was told Steven’s assist assistant ant was leaving and asked if I wanted the job. “Is that a trick question?” Turns out it wasn’t. Everyone tried to talk me out of it. “It’s a no-w n o-win in sit situati uation. on.” ” “Y “You ou get bla blamed med for ever yth ything. ing.” ” “Y “You ou have no life,,” the life they y said s aid.. I started on a Monday. Armed with an assortment of teas and bagels, I found myself on the Columbia Pictures lot doing ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) with Steven and Sean Connery on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Jeffrey Boam, George
Lucas, Menno Meyjes, and Phillip Kaufman). The irony is that seeing Raiders
of the Lost Ark (Lawrence Kasdan) in the local theater at Perimeter Mall in Atlanta when I was a kid is what got me wanting to make movies
in the first place. I actually recall walking out of the theater that night thinking, “That’s what I want to do with wit h my life l ife..” Over the course of a year, I learned many things working for Steven on Indiana Jones, Always, Arachnophobia, Back to the
Future II & III, Joe Vers ersus us the Volcano and Jurassic Jurassic Park. Abo About ut teas. About bagels. And about characters.
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Bread and Butter Characters are the bread and butter of every story. With good ones, you can tell tales that will move mankind for all of eternity. Without them, you can’t tell nobody nothing. No one will bother to stick around to follow someone they don’t care about, that they don’t identify with, that they don’t long
to be or to be with. Ideally, your characters will do all four. There are many different types of characters in stories. But it
all starts with the hero. And as they say in Highlander (Gregory (Gregory Widen, Peter Bellwood, and Larry Ferguson), “There can be
only one.”
The Hero’s Journey The hero is the center of the story. Everything and everyone
should revolve around them to serve their journey toward growth. As suggested in Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, all char-
The hero is the center of
acters must face difficult obstacles
the story. Everything and
to evolve. Action heroes must go
everyone should revolve
through absolute hell. After all, a
around them to serve their
tough gruff cop isn’t going to fall
journey jour ney toward growth.
into despair and change his ways because he lost his car keys. He must be confronted by overwhelming odds that crush him to a pulp. It is only then that he or she will do things differently. The transformation of the
hero is what your story is all about, because it is what we’re all about. We’re here on this planet for a flash in the pan to learn, grow, evolve. As humans. As parents. As practitioners. Which is why we connect with and root for characters on the same path. To know how your characters will transform, you must
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W ho’ ho’ss Your Your Hero Hero? ? The better you know your hero, the easier the writing will be. If you know what makes them tick, the writing will pour out of you. If you don’t, it will feel like sludge. If anyone is ever stuck writing, it is most likely because they don’t know their
hero well enough. Do your homework here and everything ever ything else will fall into place. To get to know your hero, ask yourself some questions about them: What do they look like? What is their education? What is their job? What do they eat? What do they wear? Where do they live? What are their fears? What are their quirks? What are their flaws? What are their skills? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What are their dreams? What are their values? Who are their friends? Who are their enemies? What is their family of origin? What is their financial status? What are their religious beliefs? How many lovers have they had? What do they like on their pizza?
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These are but a few of the questions you can ask to get to know your hero. There could be hundreds. Not all of the answers will make it into your screenplay, but they will help
inform you as the writer. And that knowledge will result in nuances of character coming out that you’re not even aware
of. No longer will you have to pace about asking yourself what your character would say or do. They just will. Your job will
simply be to write it down. The best way to lay the foundation for your hero is to write a bio on them. Dostoevsky used to write hundreds of pages as background for his characters simply to get his head around them. Granted, he had a bit of an overwriting
problem, but his preparation served him well. It will serve you well too. Even if you write a page. It doesn’t have to be
pretty or poetic. Just write. Unleash a stream of consciousness about your hero: Monty Cumberbund hated dogs. Ever since his big sister left him alone after school and he had to fend off a Rottweiler with his Scooby-Doo lunch box to make it home. Neither of his parents visited him in the hospital. They were selfabsorbed asswipes. Thirty-two stitches was the result of the “altercation” and all his parents did was bitch about the bill. The only one who gave two shits about Monty was his third-grade teacher, Miss Abrams. She was kind and sweet and soulful. And just the kind of woman you want to marry. The problem was Monty was ten. Far too young for Miss Abrams. But not her daughter.
Action heroes usually have tortured pasts. That’s what leads them down their rocky roads in the first place. A nice
boy from a nice family in a nice neighborhood doesn’t grow up to be a murdering sonuvabitch. Odds are he was locked in his closet as a tyke, beaten by an evil stepfather, or thrown in juvie for a crime he didn’t commit. The seeds of his dysfunction
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are sown early on, providing strong roots for his character to grow… into a cop, agent, or assassin.
Action heroes usually have tortured pasts. That’s what leads them
Some action screenwriters attempt
down their rocky roads
to have Goody-Two-shoes protag-
in the first place.
onists lead the charge in their
stories. This may have worked in the old days, but not anymore. Modern-day audiences are too jaded. We want to see broken heroes. And see them get fixed. Why? It gives your characters
depth and us hope for being fixed ourselves. Backstories of action heroes should include training. We like
following protagonists who know what they’re doing. If a hero is using Tae Kwon Do or an FN F2000 assault rifle or Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, they better have picked up the know-how somewhere believable. If not, the audience will call “bullshit” and depart the theater. Desperate heroes make better heroes. Especially in action films. The character who has life by the balls really doesn’t
need to lay his life on the line. But if the hero has something to lose, they will go to the end of the earth to fulfill
their mission.
Want Vs. Need If by chance you’re a skimmer, you know, the kind of reader
who blows right past the little words and tries to comprehend the bulk of the content from only the big words, you want to
slow down here. If there’s nothing else you learn from this
book, learn this: There are two things driving all great characters: want and need. Get these right and you’re well on your
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